The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization says it has accepted a settlement with sanctions against Canaccord Genuity Corp. related to trading supervision.

The regulator says the Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. subsidiary admitted that from January 2017 to March 2021 it failed to comply with its risk management and controls obligations as they related to market access by some of its direct electronic access clients.

It says that as part of the agreement, Canaccord has agreed to a fine of $475,000 and to pay costs of $25,000.

The settlement agreement says the compliance failure was related to two clients who carried out over 10,000 trades which apparently involved no change in the economic ownership. 

Known as "wash trades," such buying and selling of a security with no real change of beneficial ownership can be used to mislead investors about the trading volume and interest in a security.


Canaccord says it co-operated fully in the investigation that is pleased to have resolved, and has adopted significant improvement to its trade surveillance capabilities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2023.